1-17-18 Forgotten mountain shrine to a Soviet superstar of astrophysicsA FORGOTTEN jewel in the crown of Soviet astronomy, the Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory is located on the picturesque southern slope of Mount Aragats, a four-peaked volcano massif in Armenia. Much of the mountain (above) once lay in the permanent grip of ice. Glaciers inside its crater weren’t discovered until after the second world war. Since then, the snow line has risen and sheep herders have abandoned the mountain’s waterlogged environs. Photographer Toby Smith, on assignment for Project Pressure, a charity documenting the world’s vanishing glaciers, also recorded the lives of those who remain on the mountain. Several are astronomers. As well as renting their antiquated equipment (below) to international teams, they run an underfunded research station near the lip of the crater whose detectors measure cosmic rays (above). They are proud of their heritage. The observatory was founded and built in 1946 by Viktor Ambartsumian, who survived Stalin’s notorious purges of Pulkovo Observatory to become an internationally celebrated pioneer of astrophysics. He and his colleagues began work even before the observatory buildings (below) were finished. “Our instruments stood under the open sky, covered with tarpaulin,” Ambartsumian once recalled. He set his students, armed only with modest telescopes, the task of producing the first structural survey of the galaxy. In 1958, he caused a furore when he predicted that massive non-stellar objects sat at the centre of galaxies. He turned out to be right.After the Soviet Union’s break-up in 1991, the observatory fell on hard times, but Ambartsumian went on living near the facility and continued conducting experiments there until his death in 1996.

11-8-17 MiG: The Soviet warplanes the West feared the mostThe military design bureau MiG created some of the most feared Soviet warplanes. Take a look at some of the planes that made Western air forces freak out. In its heyday, MiG was looked upon with respect by allies and enemies alike. This Russian company was capable of designing and producing some of the world's most powerful warplanes. In the middle of the Cold War, they gave the USSR some edge – and Nato a lot of trouble.

10-20-17 Even a 'minor' nuclear war would be a global ecological catastropheEven a 'minor' nuclear war would be a global ecological catastropheCrops would die, the sun would go dark, and many would starve. The greatest concern derives from relatively new research which has modeled the indirect effects of nuclear detonations on the environment and climate. The most-studied scenario is a limited regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan, involving 100 Hiroshima-sized warheads (small by modern standards) detonated mostly over urban areas. Many analysts suggest that this is a plausible scenario in the event of an all-out war between the two states, whose combined arsenals amount to more than 220 nuclear warheads. In this event, an estimated 20 million people could die within a week from the direct effects of the explosions, fire, and local radiation. That alone is catastrophic — more deaths than in the entire of World War I. But nuclear explosions are also extremely likely to ignite fires over a large area, which coalesce and inject large volumes of soot and debris into the stratosphere. In the India-Pakistan scenario, up to 6.5 million tons of soot could be thrown up into the upper atmosphere, blocking out the sun and causing a significant drop in average surface temperature and precipitation across the globe, with effects that could last for more than a decade. This ecological disruption would, in turn, badly affect global food production. According to one study, maize production in the U.S. (the world's largest producer) would decline by an average by 12 percent over 10 years in our given scenario. In China, middle season rice would fall by 17 percent over a decade, maize by 16 percent, and winter wheat by 31 percent. With total world grain reserves amounting to less than 100 days of global consumption, such effects would place an estimated 2 billion people at risk of famine.

3-20-17 Exposed: Soviet cover-up of nuclear fallout worse than ChernobylExposed: Soviet cover-up of nuclear fallout worse than ChernobylA first look at a top secret report shows that Moscow scientists studied the impacts of nuclear bomb tests on civilians, but the results were never made public. It was a nuclear disaster four times worse than Chernobyl in terms of the number of cases of acute radiation sickness, but Moscow’s complicity in covering up its effects on people’s health has remained secret until now. We knew that in August 1956, fallout from a Soviet nuclear weapons test at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan engulfed the Kazakh industrial city of Ust-Kamenogorsk and put more than 600 people in hospital with radiation sickness, but the details have been sketchy. After seeing a newly uncovered report, New Scientist can now reveal that a scientific expedition from Moscow in the aftermath of the hushed-up disaster uncovered widespread radioactive contamination and radiation sickness across the Kazakh steppes. The scientists then tracked the consequences as nuclear bomb tests continued — without telling the people affected or the outside world. The report by scientists from the Institute of Biophysics in Moscow was found in the archive of the Institute of Radiation Medicine and Ecology (IRME) in Semey, Kazakhstan. “For many years, this has been a secret,” says the institute’s director Kazbek Apsalikov, who found the report and passed it on to New Scientist.

11-12-15 Cosmonaut training site: Oasis in an uncertain worldCosmonaut training site: Oasis in an uncertain worldLost in the birch forests an hour's drive outside Moscow is an oasis of diplomatic calm amid the turbulence surrounding Russia's relations with the outside world. While the headlines are raging about Russia's actions with its military or its athletes, one very stark and unavoidable fact remains: that Russia currently has the only means of getting people into orbit above Earth. When Western sanctions were first imposed on Russia, and questions were raised about whether Americans should still use Russian rockets, a Russian minister tweeted a picture of a Nasa trampoline - a reminder of the fact that the Americans had no choice. Ever since Nasa retired its space shuttles in 2011 - which were costing a vast amount for each launch - any manned spaceflight has had to involve Russia's venerable but highly dependable Soyuz rockets. I asked him which he'd prefer to ride: an American shuttle or a Russian Soyuz. He was too polite to answer directly but said his wife was happier to see him in a Soyuz because it was more reliable. Now the Soyuz route is a necessity, and will remain so until two American companies, SpaceX and Boeing, are ready with their own crew capsules, a prospect that keeps slipping.

10-27-15 Bikini islanders seek US refuge as sea levels threaten homesBikini islanders seek US refuge as sea levels threaten homesAbout 1,000 Bikini islanders have applied to relocate to the United States as rising seas threaten their adopted home. The residents were moved from their Pacific atoll as result of atomic bomb tests in the 1940s. But their new home, on another of the Marshall Islands, is struggling against huge tides and increasing storms. The islanders have now asked Washington to change the terms of a trust fund to allow them settle in the US. In 1946 several hundred islanders were moved from Bikini Atoll by the US government, which wanted to test atomic weapons on the remote atoll. Some 23 nuclear tests were conducted including the huge Bravo hydrogen bomb, the largest weapon detonated at that time by the US. (Webmaster's comment: First we take away their homeland, then we irradiate them, and then we drown them. Thank You America!)

9-17-15 Cosmonauts are stars of the Soviet space age showCosmonauts are stars of the Soviet space age showAs Russia's most treasured space-age artefacts are unveiled at the Science Museum in London, Mick O'Hare relives the glory days of the race for space. The exhibits from the early era of space flight in the 1950s and 1960s when the Soviet Union led the race into Earth orbit are a source of huge national pride for both the Russian government and its people. Sputnik I was the world’s first artificial satellite. Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space, Valentina Tereshkova the first woman. And Alexei Leonov was the first person to walk in space.The USSR was streets ahead of its closest opposition, the United States.

9-17-15 Valentina Tereshkova: USSR was 'worried' about women in spaceValentina Tereshkova: USSR was 'worried' about women in spaceThe first woman in space has revealed that the Soviet authorities thought it was "too dangerous" to send more female cosmonauts into orbit. Valentina Tereshkova told BBC News that she protested, writing a letter to the central communist party committee. It took the Russian authorities 19 years to send another woman into space. (Webmaster's comment: Russia sent up the first two women cosmonauts, the first woman to a space station, the first woman to perform a spacewalk, and the first woman to make two spaceflights. The United States sent up it's first two women astronauts later, one of those two later died in a shuttle disaster. To be fair United States has sent up 44 women astronauts, while the Russians have sent up only 4 women cosmonauts, but 2 United States women astronauts have died in shuttle disasters. The Russians have also sent up 5 women cosmonauts from other countries and the United States also sent up 5 women astronauts from other countries.)

Sioux Falls Free Thinkers recommend the movies below on true history of the Atomic Bomb Race and the Space Race between United States and the Soviet Union. The winner was often not who who you've been told.

American History is not what you've been taught in High School or even in College. Much of the truth has been hidden, skipped over, glossed over to the point of being unrecognizable, or spun to make Americans think we are the greatest nation on earth. Never mind that we perpetuated atrocities, crimes and theft against the American native population, against the slaves, against the peoples of South America, Africa, South East Asia and Asia proper, and the Middle East. Americans have killed more innocent people than all but four nations; Germany, Japan, Russia, and China. We seem to be obsessed with World Domination fully willing to support brutal dictatorships in order for our corporations to make profits at the expense of the people in the countries our corporations exploit. It's not a pretty picture.

Case in point. Americans murdered about 3 million innocent civilians in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. The people there were basically farmers who lived in bamboo huts and bamboo houses and whose great dream was to get a water buffalo to ease their labor in the their rice paddies and rice fields. They had no defense against our bombs, and especially not against our napalm bombs which we used to burn entire villages sending every man, woman, child, elderly person and baby to a horrible death. Once napalm lands on you it just burns through you. Imagine the horror and pain of a innocent child whose arm or leg is burning off in front of his or her eyes. We also murdered without trial 25,000 of the Vietnamese people as spies in operation Phoenix. We even lined up villagers in ditches and slaughtered women and children just like the Nazi's did in Europe. The people of Vietnam couldn't tell the difference between us and the Nazi's. We did many of the same things.

To the above atrocities add Agent Orange, unexploded bombs and artillery shells, and the cluster bombs for kids. Agent Orange is still causing birth defects and birth deformities in South East Asia forty-five years later. Unexploded ordnance still buried makes it impossible to use much of the best farm land, and children still pick up the cute little toys with the Mickey Mouse faces and get their hands or faces blown off. If this happened to us in America do you think we'd ever forgive and forget? Not likely!

These people were not a threat in any way to the United States or our interests. What were they going to do? Ride across the Pacific Ocean on their water buffalo and invade us? But we had the power to murder them in large numbers so murder them we did. All in the name of stopping the spread of communism, which was hardly going to spread to America across the Pacific. We never seem to learn that mass killing of a people stiffens their resolve. The Nazi's learned that in Russia. The South East Asians would rather have all died than give in to the likes of us. And who would blame them. And how stupid can we be?

And that's just recently. Add to that Iraq, a completely unjustified war. The Philippines in the early 20th century, with it's own set of American atrocities there. The support of the South American dictatorships and the training of their death squads by the CIA run School of the Americas. And much much more which will be documented on this website with many books and movie documentaries. You just have to open your eyes and mind and say "No More!" because if you don't America will do it all again to more innocent people someplace else.

The courses are all available from TheGreatCourses.com. They can be expensive but they are often on sale for 30% of the regular listed price. The course links on the following pages point to the course location at The Great Courses.

Sioux Falls Free Thinkers enthusiastically endorse the American-Soviet Union History 11 documentaries, 1 movie, and 3 books described on the following 15 pages: